I.     Current Themes in Majority / Minority Relations

B.     Introduction: Economic Inequality is the Essence

The purpose of this course is to explore issues that involve minorities in general. It is not intended to address specific minorities. Any presentation like this one should address material that it applies to all minority/majority relationships. This presentation assumes that all minorities share certain characteristics. It does not matter whether we are talking about the relationship between the Protestants and the Catholics in Northern Ireland or the relationship between the Chinese and the Moslems in Malaysia. Economic inequality is the major common characteristic of all minority groups. Many civil rights leaders have ultimately come to embrace economic injustice as the crucial issue.

II.     Emphasis and Approaches of the Course

A.     The Dynamics of Race and Ethnic Relations

While the focus of the course is on the U.S., the basic objective of the course is to understand the dynamics of race and ethnic relations. This inevitably leads one to have to consider other societies (Farley, 2000:4-5).

B.     Analysis and Explanation

We will not merely describe the patterns of race and ethnic relations. We want to know "why race relations exist as they do." In order to understand and deal with problems related to race and ethnicity, one has to understand the origins of the problems and the social forces that allow them to persist.

C.     From the Individual to Society

We begin with the individual and with what might cause an individual to be prejudice and to discriminate. We then move toward a structural account of race and ethnic relations which looks at the character of political and economic structures.

III.     Basic Concepts in Majority/Minority Studies

A.     What is a Race?

Farley (2000:6) describes a race as a group of people who shares similar physical characteristic. Note however that as a biological concept, the term race is almost meaningless.  Racial categories are creations of societies, not biology.   We are concerned about race, not because of some innate in born characteristics, but because people attach meanings and values to physical differences.

1.     Racial Group

Some social scientists make the distinction between race and racial group. For example, an Eskimo girl raised in a white American family in the South, never exposed to Eskimo culture or society, would be considered white by racial group and Eskimo by race.

2.     Racial Formation

Farley (2000:7) suggests that racial formation is the process that determines who the racial groups are and how the race is understood. It’s a political event.   Although race is usually defined by physical characteristics, these only matter in the context of decisions by society to consider those physical characteristics relevant.   One can take a physical feature (eye color) and literally make that characteristic relevant.

B.     What is an Ethnic Group?

Farley (2000:8) describes an ethic group as a group that shares similar cultural characteristics. There is generally a lot of interaction between members of ethnic groups.  Culture is learned and there fore ethnicity is learned. Here there is no mention of a genetic component.

C.     What is a Majority Group? What is a Minority Group?

Generally speaking, majority/minority designation is determined by race and ethnicity, sex, and physical disability.  To this list, one might also add sexual preference.

Majority Group

The group in society designated as the majority will have more that a proportionate share of wealth, power, and social status in that society.  The majority has more power in society to determine the course of that society.   Decisions made by the majority influence the lives of people who are minority.

Minority Group

A minority is a category of people who lack power, privilege, and prestige in social, political or economic spheres. Minorities must always be understood in relation to others in the social structure. A minority group lacks power, prestige, and privilege in relation to others.  Minority groups are assigned an inferior status in society.  They are unable to achieve their will. They lack resources to support their own interests effectively (Farley, 2000: 10-12).

E.     Racism

Racism is an ideology which considers the unchangeable physical characteristics of groups to be linked in a direct, causal way to their psychological and intellectual functioning, and on this basis, distinguishes between superior and inferior "races. It means that one group "knows" that his or her group is superior in every way to another (Farley, 2000:14).  Racism can be any attitude, belief, behavior, or institutional arrangement that favors one race or ethnic group over another.

1.     Ideological Racism

Ideological racism refers to the belief that some races are biologically, intellectually, or culturally inferior to others. From time to time, these ideologies are elevated to the status of scientific theory (Farley, 2000:14-15).

2.     Scientific Racism

Scientific theory relies on the idea is that science supposedly proves that some groups are innately superior to others. Farley notes that the scientist making the speculation is always a member of the superior race.

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism is an example which notes that the wealthiest and most powerful groups in society are biologically the most fit (Farley, 2000:14-15).  Not surprisingly, the race of the scientist is the race that is always viewed as superior.

IV.     Women as Minorities

A.     Women are like other minorities in that...

• They lack power relative to men. They do not hold high position and have fewer resources.
• They lack privilege relative to men
• Women lack prestige
• Women are developing a consciousness of themselves as an oppressed category of people with common interests. They are beginning to work together to achieve common goals.

B.     Women are different from other minorities in that ...

• Women generally have better education than other minorities, yet in what they are able to achieve with that education, they are similar to other minorities. In fact, when education is held equal, women suffer more than other minorities.
• Women are actually a numerical majority (in the U.S.) which gives them resources that other minorities don't have. They can vote collectively. Yet they face the same problems of organization and unity that other minorities face.
• They are physically integrated into society.